In October 2021 the International Tennis Federation (ITF) has reported an anti-doping rule violation against the Polish tennis player Filip Pieczonka after his sample tested positive for the prohibited substance Oxandrolone.
After notification the Athlete gave a prompt admission, waived his right for a hearing, accepted a provisional suspension and the sanction proposed by the ITF.
The Athlete denied the intentional use of the substance and demonstrated with evidence that he had inadvertently ingested Anavar (Oxandrolone) from a contaminated Heviran container in August 2021 in order to manage his medical condition.
He testified that he was unaware that his father had used half-tablets of Anavar for his gym regime while the Athlete used half-tablets of Heviran as treatment for his eye infection. Both stored their half-tablets in identical small glass containers in their own tennis bags.
The Athlete acknowledged that he failed to mention his medication on the Doping Control Form as he assumed that it was not necessary to disclose because the medication is available in Poland without a prescription.
However his mother found the glass container in his father's bag containing fragments of Anavar. Because she assumed that this was her son's medication she added these fragments in the Athlete's glass container resulting in contamination of his Heviran tablets.
Testing in a Laboratory identified Oxandrolone in the residue of both containers. ITF also verified that both glass containers were identical, whereas the Athlete's Heviran container was labelled and the Anavar container was not.
ITF accepts that the Athlete has established that it is more likely than not that the presence of Oxandrolone found in the his sample was caused by his inadvertent ingestion of a half-tablet of Anavar from the contaminated Heviran container in August 2021 in the manner asserted by the Athlete, in an attempt to take Heviran prophylactically to manage his medical condition.
Considering the Athlete's conduct in this case ITF concludes that the violation was not intentional and that he had acted with No Significant Fault or Negligence.
Therefore the ITF decides on 1 August 2022 to impose an 18 month period of ineligibility on the Athlete, starting on the date of the provisional suspension, i.e. 15 October 2021.
